Trip to Kampala (erin)

Early Saturday morning we got a 60 seater bus in town. It was empty enough to have our own row of seats. It was a good view of the neigbouring villages (suburbs??). On the highway, the bus goes very fast...too fast. It's very scary when we drove over potholes and lifted out of our seats, or swerves around to pass slower vehicles. (a lot different than Victoria dad!) Like Chandra said, it's a good thing we were at the back so we couldn't see how the driver was really driving. I never wished for a seatbelt more than on that ride.

We stayed at the Backpacker's Hostel just outside the city. It was very nice, almost too nice for us! Ha ha...lots of white people there so it was very weird. We stayed in two cute little hut things that reminded me of something Trudie and Glen would be staying in. The beds were just big enough that Jen and I didn't have to snuggle too close...although I will admit that it was one of the best sleeps I've had so far...

Chandra visited with some people who have relatives in Canada that she brought stuff over for. We had to wait a couple of ours for our taxi to come because of traffic and the heaviest rain I have ever witnessed.

We went to a real shopping mall, also full of muzungus. It's weird to not get stared at! Maybe I will miss the attention when I get home after all?? We were very excited to eat at the food court! Tofu and black bean sauce :) We found a good touristy shop with lots of great African crafts and things for good prices.

When we got back to the hostel we were craving pizza but alas...the menu had been changed since lunch and there was no pizza...story of our lives. We had bought ice cream at the supermarket though so it made us feel a little better. Jen read to us from her new counselling book and we even took a mental health quiz (teachers, are you reading this?). We all got on our matching pjs that Chandra made for us and tried to ignore the slugs, ants, mosquitos and whatever else was crawling around. I read Jen to sleep from her Nelson Mandela book while we listened to the music from the discoteque next door. Why can't we get away from these noisy places? I think the howling dogs followed us from Masaka too.

The next day, Carli and Jen headed to Jinga to check out an orphanage and Chandra and I stayed in Kampala and did more shopping. The Ugandans in the shopping malls are much wealthier than the outlying towns and would fit into western culture just fine. Strange to see some of the teenagers with backwards hats and pants falling off their bums! Aww, just like home!

Chandra and I had to wait 2 1/2 hours at the bus station...which was really just the side of the road...the muddiest dustiest, most exhaustiest road ever. We kept getting told it would be there in 30 minutes, 20 minutes, 10 minutes, etc. We had two other muzungus to talk to though. This ride was much more squishier, my arm was pretty much glued to the window for 3 hours. We couldn't wait to get back to our "home" in Masaka! Not much liking the big city. This bus drove even faster and we were sure we were going to die.

That's it for now! Hope you're all enjoying yourselves at home. Missing everyone :)
love erin